Weekly Wildcards: Gameweek Thirty

Every week The Hype Train analyses the best wildcard options for your Fantasy Premier League teams. Historically weekly dream team’s comprise of mostly wildcard players whose selection falls under 5% of overall players, to which there is no doubt that their influence cannot be ignored. With such an abundance of points coming from the FPL’s hidden gems The Hype Train selects one player from each match in the upcoming gameweek to decide who could be the differential for your teams.

LAST WEEKS PERFORMANCE (GW 29)

Nine players showed up for our wildcard picks last week, five of them performed well enough to be considered successes. Sometimes picking differentials is easy in obvious fixtures. You would expect Manchester City to keep clean sheets in fixtures against basement club Aston Villa at home, as was the case with Nicolas Otamendi. Likewise with Leicester this season in any match they are good for defensive returns, so Christian Fuchs is an obvious shout for a defensive option. Elsewhere you have to hope that your intuition pays off, and there were free cases that it did. Nobody would expect Lennon or Sigurdsson to keep up even more good form in tough matches, and even few people would expect Bertrand Traore to keep proving why he is fighting for a permanent place in the Chelsea squad. Things happen in the Fantasy Premier League and picking out gems is always worth a try. Fortunately we picked out five we are more than happy with.

Nacer Chadli: 0pts

Bertrand Traore: 9pts

Aaron Lennon: 8pts

Nicolas Otamendi: 6pts

Benik Afobe: 2pts

Ryan Bertrand: 1pt

Gylfi Sigurdsson: 10pts

Christian Fuchs: 5pts

Yannick Bolasie: 2pts

Saido Berahino: 2pts

Gameweek 29 Average Points: 53pts

Gameweek 29 Wildcard Points: 45pts

TEAM OF THE WEEK WILDCARDS

The shoe is on the other foot this week as the dream team consists of only three players deemed a wildcard, and one of them now isn’t even that after being heavily transferred in. That man of course is Gylfi Sigurdsson who hit his third ten point week of the season. The Icelander has been in tremendous form and should be a staple transfer ahead of gameweek thirty.

The other two wildcards consisted of Mama Biram Diouf for Stoke who has been reserved mostly as a bench player recently which is why it is a surprise entry this week. Not many strikers did well which left the space open for the Senegalese forward. The last wildcard was Josh King of Bournemouth who was instrumental in dismantling Newcastle at St James Park. A great budget buy playing in a striker’s role it is a surprise to see him as a wildcard, but understandable considering the amount of better FPL options in midfield this season.

Aside from these three the remaining eight all performed as they should, but the biggest mention for them all is their acquisition of bonus points which has allowed them to get a foothold in GW29’s dream team.

Wildcards: King, Sigurdsson, Diouf (3)

Non-Wildcards: Schmeichel, Williams, van Dijk, Bellerin, Payet, Mahrez, Yaya Toure, Aguero (8)

Points achieved by wildcards: 32pts

Points achieved by non-wildcards: 81pts

THIS WEEKS WILDCARDS

For this gameweek we are once again selecting ten wildcards, one for each game. Same rules apply: the players we choose must not be selected by more than five percent of the games players. We start in order of the games listed on the official Fantasy Premier League site.

The wildcard options selection percentage is accurate as of Friday 11/03/2016.

JESUS NAVAS, NORWICH VS MANCHESTER CITY

Name: Jesus Navas

Club: Manchester City

Position: Midfielder Price: £6.1mil Ownership: 1.0%

Short of having key players available the likes of Jesus Navas and Raheem Sterling look to be well and truly involved in the coming gameweeks. Norwich is the Citizens opposition this week and in all honesty their defensive returns have been shambolic for the Canaries this season, so much that they are one of the teams were you think: surely attacking returns for the opposition are expected. One player coming back into the Man City squad is the Spanish winger Navas, who picked up an assist in the home demolition of Aston Villa in GW29. No Norwich wildcard is worth the gamble in this fixture as there is an overwhelming feeling that it will be points wasted. Norwich can stifle bigger clubs defensively at home which is why Otamendi wasn’t selected, also we are looking to mix things up in belief that Navas who has been on the fringes this season will make another solid impact.

Last Three 27 – TOT (H) – 0pts

28 – LIV (A) – 1pt

29 – AVL (H) – 6pts

Next Three

30 – NOR (A) – 12th March, 12:45pm

31 – MUN (H) – 20th March, 16:00pm

32 – BOU (A) – 2nd April, 15:00pm

MATT RITCHIE, BOURNEMOUTH VS SWANSEA

Name: Matt Ritchie

Club: AFC Bournemouth

Position: Midfielder Price: £5.3mil Ownership: 2.1%

Quality comes in all shapes and sizes, and by far their best player is the Scotsman Matt Ritchie who has been touted for bigger things at the end of the season, plenty of clubs will want to snap him up in the summer after some tremendous displays for Bournemouth this season. Ritchie has obtained a huge nineteen points in his last three games and with a home visit of Swansea you’d expect that he would be keen to continue his good form for high flying AFC Bournemouth who look destined to retain their place in the Premier League. Ritchie’s quality comes from both open play and set pieces, and for a budget price could be a real danger man for your teams. Bournemouth’s run is a tad more difficult after gameweek thirty but if you are looking for a fifth midfielder or one week midfielder to deputise in this short gameweek then look no further.

Last Three 27 – WAT (A) – 3pt

28 – SOU (H) – 10pts

29 – NEW (A) – 6pts

Next Three

30 – SWA (H) – 12th March, 15:00pm

31 – TOT (A) – 20th March, 16:00pm

32 – MCI (H) – 2nd April, 15:00pm

XHERDAN SHAQIRI, STOKE CITY VS SOUTHAMPTON

Name: Xherdan Shaqiri

Club: Stoke City

Position: Midfielder Price: £6.4mil Ownership: 2.1%

Contributing returns in three of his last five fixtures the Swiss international Shaqiri is looking to make good on the price that Stoke got him for in the summer. This fixture between the Potters and Saints is a tough one to call as it could go either way; the only difference is in quality of distribution which Stoke offers a lot more of. They have settled players in their midfield capable of troubling even the sternest defences, also the bigger the challenge the more they accept it at the Britannia Stadium. Southampton have been vulnerable ever since Chelsea crashed the Fraser Forster party a few gameweeks ago so there is no harm in trusting in Shaqiri who has points from his last two home games.

Last Three 27 – AVL (H) – 7pts

28 – NEW (H) – 9pts

29 – CHE (A) – 2pts

Next Three

30 – SOU (H) – 12th March, 15:00pm

31 – WAT (A) – 19th March, 15:00pm

32 – SWA (H) – 2nd April, 15:00pm

KEVIN WIMMER, ASTON VILLA VS SPURS

Name: Kevin Wimmer

Club: Spurs

Position: Defender Price: £4.6mil Ownership: 0.5%

Scanning the available options for this game left us scratching our heads, Spurs have few wildcard players left to choose, and nobody should trust a doomed and downtrodden Aston Villa team. None of their available players are appealing and after resting key men against Dortmund in the Europa League it is more than certain Spurs have their eyes on domestic success this season. Aston Villa are struggling in every game and they are currently the team to back against, to this end Kevin Wimmer returns to the wildcards because he is not only a strong defensive option in a top four team but also incredibly good value too. This is an open and shut case.

Last Three 27 – SWA (H) – 2pts

28 – WHU (A) – 1pt

29 – ARS (H) – 1pt

Next Three

30 – AVL (A) – 13th March, 16:00pm

31 – BOU (H) – 20th March, 16:00pm

32 – LIV (A) – 2nd April, 17:30pm

CHRISTIAN FUCHS, LEICESTER VS NEWCASTLE

Name: Christian Fuchs

Club: Leicester

Position: Defender Price: £4.9mil Ownership: 4.4%

Since appointing their new manager, the Toon will be keen to stir things up for the league leaders on Monday when they visit the King Power Stadium. Unfortunately not many people genuinely believe that Newcastle currently possess any talent to unlock Leicester’s hard working defence. Leicester rolled over Newcastle at St James earlier in the season and only devout optimists will see any light at the end of the tunnel in this fixture for the Toon. The biggest reason for the lack of change in The Hype Train’s decision to include Fuchs rests purely because Leicester are working harder than any team, and Newcastle up until this point have barely worked at all. This is a harsh assessment but only Aston Villa have worked less to provide any quality in their team this season, game after game the Toon have showed their belly’s to home sides and nothing should change this Monday. Rafa Benitez has taken on a huge role, keeping up Newcastle is going to be the most difficult job he has ever taken on.

Last Three 27 – NOR (H) – 9pts

28 – WBA (H) – 1pt

29 – WAT (A) – 5pts

Next Three

30 – NEW (H) – 14th March, 20:00pm

31 – CRY (A) – 19th March, 15:00pm

32 – SOU (H) – 3rd April, 13:30pm